Operating rooms are currently mainly organized based on a 19th century pre-robotic environment. With the introduction of laparoscopic surgery and the following combination with robotics, a new era of surgery and operating room structure is emerging.
There are known surgery robots such as, for example, the “da Vinci” robotic surgery system developed by Intuitive Surgical, Inc. The “da Vinci” robotic surgery system comprises a surgery robot provided with a number of robotic arms or end effectors to which surgery instruments are connected. The robot is placed aside an operating table and remotely controlled by a surgeon by way of a control station comprising special handles and pedals allowing the surgeon to selectively drive the robotic arms and surgical instruments.
Other robotic surgery systems are known in the art. For example, U.S. 2013/0178870 discloses a robotic surgery system for supporting a patient and a robotic surgical manipulator. The robotic surgery system includes a base, a pillar coupled to the base at a first end and extending vertically upwardly to an opposing second end, and an attachment structure coupled to the second end of the pillar. A patient table is coupled to the attachment structure. A robot support arm has a first end coupled to the attachment structure. The robot support arm extends vertically upwardly from the first end to a second end. The robot support arm may further extends horizontally over the patient table to support a robotic surgical manipulator that will extend generally downward from the robot support arm toward a patient supported by the patient table to place an end effector of the robotic surgical manipulator adjacent a desired surgical site on the patient.
The patient table may be inclined relative to the ground in order to achieve by gravity positions of the internal organs of a patient that may be desirable for certain surgery procedures.
U.S. 2013/085510 discloses a similar robotic surgery system wherein robotic arms and a patient table are restrained to a pillar in turn mounted on a base. The patient table is operatively coupled to the robot and to an associated controller. The position of the patient can thus be controlled remotely using the robot, and the controller can have an awareness of the position and orientation of the patient with respect to the operating room and with respect to various components of the robot. Such systems can thus maintain a fixed frame of reference between the patient and one or more end effectors of the surgical robot, eliminating the need for recalibration of the system due to patient movement.
The availability of robotic surgery systems notwithstanding, a growing need to improve the quality of the operating room environment still exists, and more particularly a need to further improve and develop robotic surgery systems wherein robotic arms and a surgical table form a single integrated surgical station, which is an object according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.